ISRO plans to send Indian astronauts into space by 2024.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch Chandrayaan-3, its third mission to the moon, in June 2023.
• ISRO has made Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) more robust so that it does not have any problems.
• The space agency has also lined up the first test flight of the ‘abort mission’ for Gaganyaan, the country’s first human spaceflight, early next year.
• Somnath said, ISRO also plans to fly Indian astronauts into orbit by the end of 2024 after carrying out successful abort missions and uncrewed test flights.

 About Gaganyaan:

• Gaganyaan is a mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• Under the Gaganyaan schedule: Three flights will be sent into orbit, there will be two unmanned flights and one human spaceflight.
• The Gaganyaan system module, called the Orbital Module will have three Indian astronauts, including a woman.
• It will circle Earth at a low-earth-orbit at an altitude of 300-400 km from earth for 5-7 days.

About Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

• The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.
• The subsequent failure of the Vikram lander led to the pursuit of another mission to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2024.
• It will have an orbiter and a landing module. However, this orbiter won’t be loaded with scientific instruments like the Chandrayaan-2.
• Its job will only be confined to carry the lander to the moon, oversee the landing from its orbit and communicate between the lander and the earth station.”